U.S. Public On Science And Technology

Science Says: College-Educated Men Most Optimistic About Advances In Science

A recent study conducted by Pew Research Center in partnership with The Smithsonian Magazine revealed some of the prevailing attitudes towards advances in science and technology. Among the findings were opinions on custom lab-grown organs, autonomous vehicles, teleportation and space travel. The study was conducted over the phone, using random digit dial samples, from February 13-18, 2014 and surveyed a national sample of 1,001 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Here's a quick breakdown of the stats:

Overall, the study found that people are generally optimistic about scientific and technological changes in the future with 59% saying they believe society will be mostly better off with these changes and 30% saying society will be mostly worse off. The demographic breakdown of the responses showed that the optimistic responders were most likely to be men rather than women and mostly likely college graduates than not. Of male college graduates, a hefty 79% believed that advances in science and technology would lead to the betterment of society.

In terms of exactly which scientific and technological advancements people are expecting to see in the next 50 years, 81% of people believe that people needing new organs will have them custom grown in a lab. Not surprising as just in the past month there have been stories about 3D-printed skulls and lab-grown vaginas in the news.

An interesting topic that split the group 50/50 was whether or not computers will be able to create art that is indistinguishable from art produced by humans. I wonder if computer artists will be as pretentious as some human ones? Will they have gallery openings where everyone just stands around a CPU holding wine glasses?

In terms of the Doctor Who/Star Trek style innovations that have been the lore of science fiction novels for decades, the general public concedes (perhaps reluctantly) that we probably won't be seeing them in the next 50 years. 39% believe that teleportation of objects will be possible and only 33% believe that humans will have colonized planets other than Earth.

Perhaps with the increasing threat of natural disasters occurring due to climate change in mind, only 19% of Americans believe that humans will be able to control the weather in the future.

The data showed that there are still some hot button issues related to science and technology to which people feel strongly opposed:

No to "designer babies": 66% are opposed to "designer babies" — the ability for prospective parents to alter their child's DNA to make him/her smarter, healthier or more athletic.

No to robot caregivers: In a vote of confidence for the human touch, 65% think it would be a change for the worse if "lifelike robots become the primary caregivers for the elderly and people in poor health."

The world is not ready for Amazon Prime Air: 63% are not interested in seeing personal and commercial drones in U.S. airspace. Did Amazon Prime Air really freak everyone out that much?

People really do hate Google Glass: Most people (53%), think it would be a change for the worse if "most people wear implants or other devices that constantly show them information about the world around them. Women are especially wary of a future in which these devices are widespread."

In terms of the driverless car, 48% of people said they were interested in trying one out, while 50% said they were not. Maybe all those recent car recalls and the Tesla fires have people wary to be the guinea pigs for new car technology. People were similarly wary of getting brain implants to improve memory or mental capacity (only 26% would try it) and eating meat that was grown in a lab (only 20% would try it).

There was a substantial group of Americans who appeared to be happy with where technology is at right now or at least hadn't considered too deeply possible advancements in the future: when asked which future inventions they'd like to know, 11% said there are none they'd like to own and 28% weren't sure what they'd pick. Really? What about nation-wide Smell-o-vision?